We are sad to discover that Darrin Zinger, one of the Lions’ defenceman from the 90s team, passed away yesterday after a long illness at the age of 53. Darrin spent 10 years playing more than 500 games of hockey in the UK, including 5 seasons with Guildford Flames. He iced for the Lions in the 1989/90 season, when his day job was at Body Shop in Covent Garden. Our thoughts go out to Darrin’s family and friends.
Category: Nostalgia
More photos from Legends game
I have uploaded some cracking shots from last week’s Legends game, courtesy of Pat Ayling, featuring the likes of Jim Graves, Glen Moorhouse, Eddie Joseph, Tari Suwari, Simon Wren and Ali Rodger. You can see them via the Photos page, here.
First photos from Legends game
Last night Lions of the past, present and future came together for the Lee Valley Legends game. It was a close-fought contest with the current team nipping ahead to become the 7-5 victors. It was great to see so many familiar old faces yesterday and a massive thank-you must go to George Alley, who masterminded the whole thing – not forgetting, of course, all the players who took part and everyone off-ice whose work and dedication went into organising such a great evening’s entertainment.
It felt strange for me, coming back to the Den without a camera in my hand for the first time in many years. My successor, Pat Ayling, took lots of great photos last night, the first of which is a photos of the teams together, which can be seen here. In the meantime, I’ve posted a few shots taken by Lola Cook (a member of the Cook family who played such a big part in helping out the original Lions – Mike, Ena, Peter and Julie) and used with kind permission. You can see them here.
Lions Old & New Come Together for Legends Game
On February the 5th 1984, Mike Smith assembled a small band of men coached by Dave Wurthman in the newly-opened Lee Valley Ice Centre. The match, against Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, began three decades of flying pucks, a lot of goals and maybe the odd scrap.
To celebrate 30 years of Ice Hockey at the Den, the Lee Valley Lions are delighted to announce that on Saturday August the 30th, the current Lions squad will take on a side made up of Original Lions from the teams that graced Lea Bridge Road in the 80’s and 90’s.
Songs like “When the Going Gets Tough” and “Welcome to the Jungle” will blare out through the speakers once more and the Clock Enders will reunite for one (or several) more beer in the rink bar.
So come to the Den, and join the celebration as the club marks 30 years of East London Ice Hockey.
You can keep up to date with player announcements and ticket prices (to be announced shortly) on our Twitter & Facebook pages.
Don’t forget you can still see the Lions on July 26th & 27th when they take on Haringey Racers in the Richards Cup.
Saturday 30/8/14
Face off: 5:15pm
Lee Valley Ice Centre
Lea Bridge Road
Leyton
E10 7QL
#ComeToTheDen #LeeValleyLions
Where are they now? Barry Smith in Sweden.
Fans of the original Lions might be interested to know that import Barry Smith went on to an impressive coaching career and he is currently based at Swedish side, Modo. Mikael Uhlin, who runs a site about the former London Lions, has kindly sent me an article about Barry that featured in a Swedish magazine, together with an English translation. You can find it in the Team History section, here.